What ensures Success?

GEAR UP

What ensures success

(ahem) at the workplace?

Steve Correa

This question has been foremost on the mind of every person who has embarked or is about to step out onto a career path. Each individual craves success and the trappings that are co-related with it.

What are the pre-requisites for success? What does it take to become successful? We search for answers and look to those who have either been successful or have researched on this subject, hoping to get hold of the ‘magic mantra’ that will facilitate us in our endeavors to success.

Sadly, the answer we derive is that which has made someone else a success, but would it guarantee ours? Often it may even seem opposed to what would or could contribute to OUR personal success.

Definition of Success varies…

Interestingly, when I joined the institute, I thought I would like to be a manager. A manager seemed better than a ‘non-manager’, but by the time I was close to passing out I had very definitive ideas about my functional field, my areas of specialization, my choice of companies, and a very giddy assuredness that I would be a General Manager soon! J . Now several years later, having spent 25 years in the corporate sector, I am enthusiastically planning the ‘second half’ of my career as a Corporate Coach. What mattered yesterday no longer inspires today. In other words, our goals change our definitions of what success means change too.

The same is true for money, power, recognition etc. The goal posts have changed continuously. It almost seems that each time you have scaled one peak, another one looms ahead. Almost like a concentric circle that widens even further. It seems as if we crave and desire more each time, insatiable, always – ‘Dil Mange More”. Each time a desire is quenched and fulfilled, instead of it abating, it comes back again, after a brief hiatus, often with an increased intensity.  That which you pay attention to, grows; that which you avoid, haunts! Notice this. It has happened to you before and it will happen to you again. The more you achieve, the more you will set new goals! The more you will re-define success.

Note this, that which you define failure is also ‘defined’ by you.

It has been and will continue to be so. Our definition of success will always be transient, to be best defined only by our self. It seems to me that the human instinct and impulse that drives all thought and action is motivated by the desire to be happy and happiness is relative to each individual.

As an executive coach today, I have come to learn that different people define success differently. When one is younger, one benchmarks with peers. As a young working adult, being noticed as a performer is important. Later, as a parent and spouse, being responsible and having stability in career and peer positioning is desired. As you grow in your function, success is measured by the reputation you command in your field of expertise in the industry. Like Maslow’s hierarchy, it moves to self- actualization. This is where making a difference matters, you give back to others and to Society. I have seen many move rapidly through these stages, sometimes back and forth. So at one level, what we define as success is also a matter of time and at what stage we are in our journey.

Our meanings define us…

As the meanings we give to life change, so too does our definition of success. There is no question about which is better or worse.  That is not the point. It just so happens that at each stage something is more pressing, immediate and thus becomes a priority   We should not be tempted to ‘quick jump’ to the next stage: each stage is to be lived through, savored and transcended. It is only when you have dealt with each stage that you can go to the next. Escaping from one to another and running to the other extreme is far worse. That which you run away from will always haunt. In every YES, lies a NO, and vice versa. So I urge that you enjoy each stage.  Enjoy it fully! And be aware of your self at all times.

Our meanings come from our thoughts...

We propel through life powered by the fuel of our own thoughts and beliefs. Our thoughts are the un-manifest. They create the basis for our emotions and actions. They assure us our future. We create what we envision. Nature bends to accommodate and lends to us that which we need. It accommodates and provides all that we need, as and when we request it. This should be understood. It is the power of our vision and our beliefs that drive success. We choose our success. Failure happens all the time, every moment. It is how we view failure, how we react to it, how we turn it as a ‘coach’ that truly helps us to grow and achieve what we wish. Our thoughts create our purpose, a deep purpose that we give to our lives, and it is this purpose that guides our emotions and actions.

It is when we keep our thoughts alive, when we keep our dreams alive, that we truly create the emotional furnace within, and fuel action. Humans differ from other species in that man has an innate capacity to envision the future as well as to reflect on the past. He has a deep desire to relate and express. It is this that makes human beings so responsive to environment. In fact human beings change the environment they live in.

As we journey through life, we blossom and realize our full potential. We grow to develop our strengths, accept and work on our weaknesses and strive to discover our personal excellence. It is only when we strive towards the unfolding of our own beings, that we truly feel engaged, energized and happy. It is this search for personal excellence that I define as ‘true success’. This success is self affirmed and does not seek external validation or confirmation.

So far, we have talked about a few things: that the desire to be happy creates all actions, that thoughts are the basis for our emotions and actions and as we sow, so shall we reap. We talked about what defines success and that at each stage success means different things to each of us.

Finally, that as we replace our meanings, our definitions of success change.

Now let’s go a little deeper and talk about organisations.

Having spent 25 plus years in the corporate sector and all of it mostly in the Human Resource(s) function, I would like to steer away from the unresolvable question of reconciling What matters in a workplace? What are the essentials to success?

The context and answers are always different depending on whom you ask the question. To me what matters is that if an individual is engaged in his work and that leads to organizational success, then that amounts to his being successful.

I was present in the student hall, when Russi Mody, ex Chairman of Tata Steel was asked by a student, “What makes a manager successful?” He replied, “I call it the three C’s – Competence, Credibility, & Compassion.” To me at that time, it seemed like a catch phrase, strung together on capital C. There were so many ‘success formulas’ shoveled out to new debutants, promising the magic to managerial effectiveness. It seemed like one literally had to be ‘Superman’ to be successful. Newer mantras replaced older ones rapidly – ‘another one bites the dust, another one gone, another one bites the dust’, I can still recall them like the music strain of the Beatles’ famous song. So what is the secret – the Da Vinci code, the secret elixir to executive success?

So what is meant by Competence? Clearly you have to demonstrate that you have the capability and the capacity for performance. Do you have the requisite skills and competencies at each threshold in your career? Each of us pass from ‘doing the doing’  (here functional knowledge is critical) to ‘managing the doing’ (behavioral and cross functional skills are most important here) and at senior levels, ‘managing the undoing’ (leadership skill) to be relevant to new challenges. As one moves up the organization, one moves away from being a specialist to being a generalist, unless one prefers to be highly specialized and serve as a single contributor.

Paradoxically, while organizations hire you on the basis of IQ and Experience and Knowledge, you get fired for EQ, or the lack of it. EQ, is the intelligent use of one’s emotion for self and others.

Let me talk about Credibility. At the core, this means trust. Do people trust you? Unintelligent folks have unshaking faith in others. The intelligent can only trust. Do you come across as being open – do you share of your self openly and listen openly to others. Are you open to other people’s viewpoints? Can you be trusted when given responsibilities? Do you trust yourself? When you set an alarm for 6 am, do you give yourself ten minutes snooze time or do you create a discipline to wake up at 6 as planned. Trusting oneself is core to being trusted by others. When trust exists, awareness exists, courage and conviction exist.  When people trust you (given that you trust yourself) they are willing to go along with you, to listen to you, to follow you, to be inspired by you. It is then that you create credibility. My ex boss, Asim Ghosh, would often refer to this as ‘Gravitas’. Do YOU have gravitas?

Finally to Compassion. Compassion is not sympathy or having deep emotions. Compassion is that quality of being with somebody, in somebody else’s context. I do not say that it is about being in someone’s shoes (that would be to lose perspective completely); it is also not about being in one’s shoes and feeling sorry for the other (that is actually hypocrisy, we feel good at someone else’s misery, and thankful we do not suffer likewise). To me, compassion is being in one’s shoes while also being in the other’s. Holding the ‘balance’ – the ‘santulan’. It is this ability to be simultaneously in both ‘shoes’, this wholesomeness of view, that offers us clear awareness. It is this compassion that allows us to celebrate with the happy, hand- hold those in misery, deal with the wicked, and manage those who are envious. Above all, compassion helps us resolve all that we are attracted to or repelled by. This quality of compassion offers us the joys of awareness and facilitates responses to situations, enabling one to respond rather than react to them.

I would like to thank Russi Mody for coining the 3C’s – Credibility, Competence and Compassion. I heard it way back in 1985 as a student at XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Over 25 years, I have tested these, both in organizational and personal settings and believe that these three qualities are true. I re-state the insight, old wine, is old wine, and grows richer and more potent with the years.

Old insight, but youthful vitality

In a recent study I did on Voice of Youth of India (refer stevecorrea7@blogspot.com) I was inspired to note that young folks are so confident about the future. I am certain as a country we are at the threshold of a resurgent India, an India that is strong, bold and leads. An India that rises to its potential to be a global voice, a voice for all nations, for all mankind.

A final word of advice: these three words worked for me. It may or may not work for you, something else might. Start with anything. Use any device (or words). But always, test each concept on the anvil of experience, Personal Experience. Only then discard or adopt. Till then trust no words, no man, no mantras.

Let your journey begin. Good luck!

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